Skilled medical team gives hope for baby boy

Little Levi Janse van Vuuren with plastic surgeon Christiaan Joubert, left, and neurosurgeon Dr Sajid Ansari, who operated on him when he was only eight hours old

With careful surgery on a baby just eight hours old, a team of specialists turned a heartbreaking prognosis for a little boy with a potentially devastating genetic condition into a story of hope.

This week Levi Janse van Vuuren, weighing in at a healthy 6.4kg, ticked all the milestones set for a baby of four months – but late last year his parents, Llewellyn and Quinnica, were faced with a horrific choice.

“When I was 20 weeks’ pregnant we had a scan with a doctor in East London. She said our baby’s head was a lemon shape and that this might be indicative of spina bifida,” Quinnica said.

Spina bifida is a birth defect caused when the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord do not close properly. It is sometimes caused by a shortage of folic acid in the mother’s body, but can also have a genetic cause.

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